


Temporary Suffering

by CinnamonFreckle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Birthday Party, Drabble, F/M, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Purgatory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25609381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinnamonFreckle/pseuds/CinnamonFreckle
Summary: Neville should be enjoying his birthday party, but unfortunately his feelings for a certain witch are not helping his mood.  Hopefully these feelings or his mood, are only temporary.Drabble for the Hermione's Nook Harry and Neville's Birthday Celebration.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Pansy Parkinson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 16
Collections: Harry & Neville's Birthday Celebration





	Temporary Suffering

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Hermione's Nook Neville and Harry Birthday Celebration.
> 
> As is usual for me, I am writing this with hours to go before the deadline, so it is unbeta'd and barely edited. All mistakes are my own!
> 
> The prompt for the Drabble was "Purgatory", which is a bit more downbeat than my usual fluff - and possibly not very "celebratory". Hopefully I did it justice.
> 
> The inspiration was the dictionary definition - "A place of temporary misery or suffering" - as I thought a Drabble with all the Harry Potter characters dead was a bit literal, and even more depressing.

Initially, Neville had thought the joint birthday party to be a brilliant idea. He and Harry, were only born a day apart, and they had the same group of friends. Really, it just made sense to book out the Three Broomsticks and invite everyone for one big bash. 

But, of course, she had been invited.

She would be here, he thought bitterly. It wasn’t enough that she had broken his heart, it now seemed that she had decided to rub said broken heart in his face, and attend his birthday party. Though he shouldn’t have been surprised really. Harry was loved up with Blaise, Ginny had hooked up with and was married to Draco, and Hermione and Theo had been quietly seeing each other for months.

Only weeks ago, Neville had been daydreaming about walking into this party, his party, with her on his arm. He would have fiercely declared to all of his friends, that yes they had been seeing each other, and yes it was serious. 

But Pansy had put paid to that idea just last week. Neville had casually, well as casually as he could, suggested to Pansy that he wanted them to go to the party together. His reasoning that he liked her, and the past three months sneaking around had been great, but wouldn’t it be good to get it all out in the open. In response Pansy had quickly, and remarkably efficiently, found her clothes, got dressed, and told Neville that it wasn’t working for her any more.

Though it had only been a few months, Neville had felt his heart shatter. He had been miserable since.

As Neville looked across the room, he noticed her standing by the fireplace with some of the girls from her year. Neville grimaced behind his glass when he realised she was talking to his ex-girlfriend Hannah Abbot, as well as Millicent Bulstrode. He hoped that Pansy hadn’t decided that this evening was a great opportunity to trade shortcomings about him with Hannah, but then, Neville realised, he wasn’t sure that he knew Pansy that well at all. Certainly not well enough to be half-way in love with her. 

He took a quick gulp of his drink, trying to calculate what the earliest time was he could reasonably leave without being rude, or causing too many questions to be asked. 

He was just working out that if he gave it one more hour, Seamus would be drunk enough that his loud antics, and various attempts to repeat his party trick of turning water into rum, would be a suitable distraction which would allow him to sneak off, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Neville, love.” Luna approached, giving a small, sad, smile. “I would say, Happy Birthday, but with the number of wrackspurts around your head, I can tell it’s not been that happy.”

Neville tried to smile at Luna, but even he knew, it was more of a grimace. “Not really in the mood for celebrating, Luna.” He admitted.

Luna looked over towards the fireplace, where Neville had continued to stare at Pansy. It really wasn’t fair, he thought. There she was, in a fabulous short red dress, showcasing her long legs. Her hair was pristine as always, in the long bob that she favoured. Her face tastefully made up, her lips painted the crimson red lipstick she preferred. Neville had flashbacks of those red lips, desperately pressed to his own. She threw back her head and laughed at something that Hannah had said.

“At least someone’s having fun.” Neville commented bitterly, “I don’t remember Hannah being that funny.”

Luna looked over at Neville, and smiled. “You aren’t the only one, surrounded by wrackspurts, so is Pansy … if you look carefully.” And giving Neville an enigmatic smile she floated over towards Harry and Blaise.

Neville sighed, and looked at his watch again, only 45 more minutes before I can leave, he thought to himself. Looking up and glancing over to the fireplace, he noticed that Pansy was looking over at him, an unreadable expression on his face. 

Deciding that actually, he had had enough, he lifted his glass towards her in a mock toast, downed the remains of his drink, and headed towards the door. To hell with all this, who cared if his friends noticed he had left early. Nobody really wanted a heartbroken, miserable man in the middle of a party. 

As he reached the door, he heard someone call his name. He ignored it, thinking that he would just deal with the fallout tomorrow.

He pushed open the door to The Three Broomsticks and started walking down the high street, when he heard his name being called again. This time noting that the voice was female. Turning around, he came face to face with Pansy.

“What do you want, Pansy.” He muttered out harshly. 

“Happy Birthday, Neville.” She timidly replied.

“Oh,” he exclaimed. “Well, if that’s all, I’ll just be off.” With that he turned again, and started to walk away.

“Wait,” Pansy cried out. “Let’s start over, please. I can be a bit of a coward, and I didn't know how to react last week. But I really like you too, Neville Longbottom.”

And, for the first time that evening Neville smiled.

  
  



End file.
